Watch Kiss’ Previously Unseen Video for ‘I (Believe in Me)’

Kiss’ alternate video for the song “I (Believe in Me),” from the controversial Music From the Elder album, has surfaced online – 26 years after it was shot and buried.

The clip was uncovered by the fan podcast Kiss My Boots, which managed to track down a time-coded version found on an old videocassette. You can see this new version above.

Two versions of the promotional video were shot back in 1981. The one fans had already seen is based around a standard stage set. But the lost edition, directed by Bruce Gowers, features a “Fortress of Solitude” set and more interaction with the studio audience.

“This one was filmed over a Halloween weekend in New York City,” notes Kiss My Boots. The hosts point out that stills had appeared in the 2002 book Kiss: The Early Years, which was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, but that the video had never been seen.

Music From the Elder divided Kiss fans when it was release in 1981, and contributed to the departure of guitarist Ace Frehley. Drummer Peter Criss was already gone by this point.

Simmons had conceived the album as a soundtrack to a movie that was never made. The resulting LP – with the song order changed, so the already convoluted story was even more difficult to follow – was seen by many as a flawed concept. “We were convinced we were making our Sgt. Pepper," Simmons told TeamRock last year: "When the album came out, we were embarrassed.”